Chapter 89

Although I felt devastated again, I concentrated on comforting the little boy and put my arms around him again, crouching next to him, smoothing the dirty hair from his face with my fingers. I went up to kiss his cheekbone, and although the smell he gave off was repellent, I tried not to focus on it. He needed support and containment, not more rejection. I touched his tears of helplessness and pain, and I gritted my teeth so as not to cry again too. I just wanted that terrible moment to end once and for all. I didn’t feel able to bear one more bad news.

At that, Luke stood up quickly, and Mirko made a different sound, somewhere between a yelp and a snort.

When I was going to ask what was happening, the wolf-child raised his cold, small hand and covered my mouth; the roughness of his hard pads against my lips, a pungent smell of gasoline and engine grease. Silence surrounded us, silence in every sense: absolutely nothing could be heard anymore except the vast, hollow stil